Tuesday, 23 September 2008

THE PRIME MINISTER'S SPEECH AT LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE

The man hath certainly cometh. Gordon Brown's speech had everything, not least that this will be the "British century" thanks to our scientific genius, our cultural industries and our language, to name but a few. An upbeat fighting speech indeed, one of whose themes was that tough times strengthen our resolve.

Gordon on form cannot be bettered and this was vintage Brown boldly stating that a fair society is the mission of us all.

Labour stands for fairness above all. "We don't give in and we never will", the aim being to develop all the talents of all the people and achieve much higher rates of social mobility.

The speech had everything. On declaring that healthcare is a right to be enjoyed by all the Prime Minister received a rapturous standing ovation. He then went on to tell the story of how the sight in his right eye was saved thanks to the NHS - a rare and moving piece of personal history which brought tears to my eyes.

As the symbol of the fairness which is at the root of Gordon's and Labour's beliefs, the NHS will get more money. Each patient will have care plan. There will be no prescription charges for those suffering from cancer. Everyone over 40 will be entitled to a free annual health check. Labour is the Party of the NHS and we will always support it.

Fairness also drove Gordon's pledge to eliminate child poverty by 2020. There will be ground breaking legislation to enshrine this pledge to end child poverty in the laws of the land. Now that children's centres exist across the country, nursery provision will be extended to two year olds.

Finance for education will also be increased. Any child who leaves primary school unable to read, write or count will get personal catch up tuition. Gordon's government will also fund over one million extra families to get on line, an important policy as Britain has more people who participate on the internet than any other country.

Gordon also spoke about pensions, law and order, migration and the developing world. His heartfelt pledge to work to end poverty in developing countries was extremely well received and even got a few to their feet.

As befits the best Chancellor we have had for a very long time, Gordon put forward a package to ease the present turmoil, based on transparency, sound banking, responsibility, integrity and global standards with global supervision. On this and law and order his guiding principle was reward those who play by the rules and punish those who do not. Sounds to me that this is about as good as it gets.

Harriet Harman got a special mention for the Equalities Bill she will soon introduce. JK Rowling obviously featured thanks to her extreme generosity.

And finally, Members of the European Parliament who have done so much work to free agency workers from the scourge of exploitation. Unlike the Tories Gordon Brown and the Labour Party see Britain's future in Europe. We are not extremist and isolationist like the Tories. Gordon and David Miliband are working and will continue to work with Britain's partners in the EU, especially concerning Georgia, the Middle East and other conflict zones.

The Prime Minister's speech at Party Conference is the nearest we have to a state of the nation address. I have little doubt that the nation is in good hands.